For most of us, the words “personal finance” feel scary. Scary in the way IBD was right after we were diagnosed. But as we learned more, those butterflies lessened. This is also true for money and personal finance. The feeling that makes us want to turn away because it seems too complicated, too intense, too painful, and too scary go away with a bit of knowledge and a few simple habits.
This is where 27-year-old Annelise Bretthauer, CFP®, of Oregon comes in. Annelise was diagnosed with Crohn’s in March 2017. Just like all of us, she is a lot more than just a patient. Annelise is newly married and she’s a financial planner. Get this—her professional focus is to help families manage chronic disease! How perfect is that. 
Her goal for you today is to walk away feeling better equipped when it comes to money saving know-how and a bit more empowered. I’ll let her take it away…
The keys to financial stability are a dash of planning, a positive money mindset and a system that helps you stick to positive habits, which allow you to achieve your goals. Creating financial stability is an impactful way to reduce your stress and save energy for other things that fill your healing cup. Let’s jump in!
Step #1: Take a few moments to ask yourself, what are my closely held beliefs about money? Are these beliefs limiting my progress?
A couple examples are: I don’t understand financial things, I am not good with money, money is evil, I am only secure when I have lots of money, money is scary or maybe, I love money, money flows easily to me. 
There is no right or wrong. What is coming up for you? It doesn’t need to make perfect sense, it’s just to get your mind thinking about how you view money. Share these sentiments in a journal or planner.
Step #2: Write yourself a positive money and health affirmation on a sticky note.
This looks different for everyone. Most of us have negative beliefs about money, but some of us don’t! If that’s the case for you, that’s okay too. Design this affirmation to help you build wealth in a way that inspires you. Put it on your mirror and say it out loud right before you brush your teeth each morning and evening.
A couple examples are: I am worthy of prosperity, I have the power to protect my health while earning plenty of money, each day I become healthier and wealthier.
Step #3: Develop a simple spending plan.
The simplest way to do this is to take out a piece of paper or a note on your phone, write down how much money you take home, subtract how much you want/can save and what’s left can be allocated to your expenses. The key is to set up an automatic transfer to your savings account on the day you get paid, so you don’t have to think about it.
Step #4 (a piggyback on #3): Create a savings account that is just for managing your health and automate your savings to it each month on the day you get paid. 
This can be a game changer. When money is already set aside for your health, it helps alleviate the energy and stress that comes with the cost of managing our IBD.
Step #5: Create a habit of Financial Planning Saturday. And a system to help you stick to it!
This is a simple weekly 10-minute check-in with yourself (or your partner) to look at your bank accounts and check your credit card balance. Decide how you will adjust next week if you need to.
Ask yourself, how will I create a system that makes it easy for me to remember to do it? For example, if you always do yoga on Saturday morning, make it a routine to do your planning meeting right after. Or set an alarm on your phone as a reminder.
Bonus Tip: Set yourself 6-month and 12-month health and wealth goals. Write it down in a planner or journal, then take it out each Financial Planning Saturday and check your progress. Give yourself grace and commend yourself for showing up. If you keep showing up, you will meet your goals, even if it takes longer than you’d like. 
If you don’t think of yourself as a money person. Let’s change that! All people are money people. Financial planning is not just for those who have already built wealth. It’s for all of us. As chronic disease IBD warriors, you have figured out so much already. Offer yourself permission to feel the fear and do it anyways. Let’s make a plan and step into the driver’s seat of our health and our wealth.
If this post sparked your curiosity, stay tuned for the launch of www.Kauviara.com. Annelise is working on courses (which will be free as a Lights, Camera, Crohn’s reader) and a Financial Guide Planner.
You can follow Annelise here:
Instagram: @annelisebretthauer
Facebook: Annelise Bretthauer
I feel like we blinked and her first year passed by. That being said, having a baby and a two-year-old, while being a stay-at-home mom and freelancer, who happens to have Crohn’s disease, has its challenges.
Through motherhood I’ve learned to soak everything in, because you blink, and another year or milestone goes by.
Fatigue from motherhood when you have a chronic illness can be mind-numbing and debilitating, but seeing your body create a life and then bring a baby into this world makes you feel a renewed sense of love for a body that you’ve been at odds with for years. IBD and motherhood has it’s worries and challenges, but at the end of the day, your children will be the greatest light in your life, and the most magical motivators of strength. There’s almost too much going on to worry about your own well-being, which is both a blessing and a curse!
Gone are the days of going out at 11 pm, now I rarely go out and when I do, I’m usually home before 10. There’s no pressure to stay out until bar close or take a shot. My friends are all grown women, many of them are moms, our priorities have shifted. Adult conversation over brunch or a glass of wine and some sushi or tapas is refreshing and rejuvenating. I openly communicate about my disease when asked and don’t shy away from the conversation like I once did.
If you’re reading this and you’re newly diagnosed, a teenager, a 20-something, trust me when I say that balancing life—all your obligations, your network of support, your job and what you’re meant to do with your life will find it’s way. Don’t beat yourself up by creating a timeline or a vision board that sets you up for failure. Don’t try and keep up with the Jones’. Don’t compare where you are in life to your peers. Because there is no comparison. When you have IBD you are being unfair to yourself if you try and be just like everyone else, because you’re not. And that’s ok. Use your experience as a patient to give you patience within yourself. Everyone faces struggles, everyone faces setbacks, but someday I promise you’ll look back and those very same struggles will be the reason you are strong, focused, driven, empathetic, and living the life you were meant to live.
She has ulcerative colitis and I have Crohn’s. She is 24 and I’m 36. But, our lookout on life and our interest in bringing comfort and serving as a positive voice for the community is the same.
So not only does she have her own personal patient experience, but she’s been a part of a family unit who’s dealt with the ups and downs her whole life. It was emotional for me as an IBD mom, to hear firsthand from a 20-something about what it was like to not only grow up with a mom who has Crohn’s, but later be diagnosed with IBD herself.
If you’re looking to follow someone who is sure to lift your spirits and make you feel empowered, she’s your girl. When I chatted with her on the phone, I told her how much I look up to her for her advocacy work, despite being 12 years older!
Yes, there have been times when everything felt heavy and bleak. Yes, there are still times I feel sorry for myself. But those days are far outnumbered by the joy-filled, happy days I choose to focus on.
This week—I interview Therezia AlChoufete, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) who specializes in Gastrointestinal Diseases, to set the record straight about this area of disease management. Therezia completed her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and her Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Pittsburgh.
At the time she was diagnosed, Kate was immersed in her undergraduate studies that were divided between Geoscience and Studio Art and took on the role of caregiver for her mother. This week Kate shares how art has benefited her patient journey and offers up helpful ways you can incorporate art into your life, even if all you can draw are stick figures (like me!):
The microbiome is a hot spring of unanswered questions in relation to its role in IBD, as well as many other conditions. Applying the methods I have used in other projects, I researched the different types of bacteria and their shapes and used them to create a series of abstract drawings that relate to the digestive system and allow people to develop a sense of the complexity of the human body.
Sharon Pevsner of California shares how reflection, renewal, and readjustment helps her take on the unpredictability and the challenges IBD brings to her family. I’ll let her take it away…
Therapy, exercise, massage, friends, a night away. The reason airlines tell you to put on your own air mask before helping your child is because if you aren’t stable, your child won’t be either. I have bad days. Labs that are horrible can throw me into despair. I go back to faith. In Hebrews 11.1 “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” I allow myself a day to be sad and angry and then I rise again. My son is a warrior and I will be too.
We know our bodies, we know our triggers, and we are the ones who are ultimately going to have to pay if symptoms arise. Comments like “Oh, I didn’t think you could eat that?” or “Isn’t that going to land you in the bathroom?” are completely unnecessary. Focus on passing that side dish of mashed potatoes rather than giving us the side eye at the dinner table.
Bringing “safe” foods or eating ahead of time at home provides comfort and allows us to enjoy more of the party. Please don’t take offense if we eat very little, or nothing at all.
Please trust we know the side effects of the medications we are on; we know the risks of the surgery we may have to get; we know it all. Please don’t tell us to start taking a supplement you found online. Yes, we’ve heard of: CBD oil, turmeric, probiotics, the list goes on. Please don’t question the safety of our biologic. Our disease is our reality. Unless you live it, it’s not yours.
Just as with food, everyone with IBD responds differently to alcohol. We understand a glass of wine here or a beer there at a celebration may not seem like a big deal, but one drink can be enough to cause us extreme abdominal pain. Feel free to ask us, but if we decline the offer please don’t pester us, ask us if we’re pregnant, or try and make us succumb to peer pressure. We’d much rather be sober and present at the party without pain.
She is involved in research and clinical care, and she created the IBD Anti-Inflammatory Diet which is being investigated through the MELODY Trial. Barbara explains how through the MELODY Trial, the team is aiming to intervene in the transmission of a pro-inflammatory microbiome from women with Crohn’s to their babies.
lights camera crohn's 